Anguished Declarations of Love in Literature.
- In Alien in a Small Town, when it appears they're both about to die horribly, Paul finally blurts out his love for Indira, and that for years his jealousy of her husband has been unbearable for him. Unfortunately, she then proceeds to save both their lives, which means they have to face the consequences of what he's said. Indira has a first-rate Freak Out, and the two don't speak again for decades, both their hearts in shreds. They finally reconcile when they're both very old, long after her husband Tendai has passed away. They have a few happy years together before Indira finally dies of old age.
- Professor Radcliff Emerson, realizing that he might very well die that night, gives Amelia Peabody a long, passionate kiss — even at the risk of living to face the consequences, which turn out to be a long and happy marriage.
- Gilbert Blythe's proposal to Anne in Anne of Green Gables — she likes him more than anyone but as a friend. The combination of an overactive imagination and reading too many romance novels could color one's view of love, so this one might be Justified.
- At the end of Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept, Fleta had reached the Despair Event Horizon after determining she and Mach would never be allowed to be together and being his mistress was the best she could hope for. The Red Adept gave her an amulet that would Mode Lock her, so she couldn't reflexively form change and save herself. Mach discovers her throwing herself off a cliff. Mach screams the "Triple Thee" (Phaze's ultimate oath of love) at her. The power of the oath combined with his own magic power to overwhelm Red's amulet, allowing Fleta to change to firefly form and survive.
- In Caleb Williams, the titular hero declares his love for his employer in Ch. 3 of Vol. II — at the end of a heated argument."Sir, I could die to serve you! I love you more than I can express. I worship you as a being of a superior nature."
- In Chronicles of Chaos, Victor, the resident Stoic makes a calm but still very anguished (they're surrounded by enemies and most everybody's wounded) declaration to Amelia that he does love her and wants to marry her if they survive.
- Taran delivers an elegantly subtle one of these to amnesiac Princess Eilonwy in the third book of The Chronicles of Prydain in an attempt to restore her memory.
- Daddy-Long-Legs: Near the end, Jervis proposes to Judy and she turns him down because she's insecure about her impoverished background (which she's never told him about because by the time he met her she'd been uplifted by an Anonymous Benefactor); he goes away with hurt feelings and a mistaken impression that she's in love with someone else, and she doesn't hear from him again for months. Afraid that she's missed her chance to tell him the truth, she writes an anguished letter to her benefactor explaining the situation and pouring out her feelings about it — which does the job, because unbeknownst to her, her Anonymous Benefactor is Jervis.
- In The Darkest Part of the Forest, when it looks like he's about to die at the Alderkin's hand, Severin confesses his love for Ben in front of the entire Court.
- Dickens seems fond of these — but in David Copperfield, when David Copperfield tries it, it rather backfires, what with his paramour Dora breaking down into sobs, David trying to calm her down, and her yippy dog barking his head off the entire time.
- In the Dragonriders of Pern prequel book, Dragonsdawn: Tarvi Andiyar makes one to his wife, Sallah Telgar, who was kidnapped and stranded on one of the derelict colony ships. She's running out of air and they have no way of prepping one of the remaining shuttles to rescue her. Tarvi pours his heart out to her as it's clear she's out of time. This was the first time he'd ever actually told her he loved her. He changed his and their children's names to "Telgar" in tribute.
- In Book 3, Grave Peril, of The Dresden Files, Harry's suffering from self-inflicted poison and is imprisoned by a vengeful vampiress. He regains consciousness to find that Susan, his girlfriend (who he's been having trouble confessing his love toward) is in the room with him… and has been half-turned into a vampire herself. If she feeds deeply enough to kill a human, as her new instincts are pushing her to do, she'll turn completely into a monster, and the poison will likely kill her afterward. Harry tries to use magic to break through to her, but it doesn't work — until, desperately, he says that he loves her. Some combination of magic, desperation, and love breaks through to Susan, and the two manage to escape and burn the vampiress's mansion to the ground. Afterward, Susan, suffering blood-hunger due to her new half-vampire status, leaves Harry because she has trouble sorting out her new vampiric urges with her desire for Harry, and she doesn't want to hurt him. The story ends up very, very tragically.
- Expecting to Fall into Ruin, I Aim to Become a Blacksmith: In a major story arc climax, Eliza confesses her feelings to Kururi when she learns that the ritual he's doing to save his homeland that's being destroyed by an ancient curse, requires his Heroic Sacrifice. And thus they each declare their feelings were Love at First Sight.
- A mother/daughter example in the second book of Ever After High. When Raven destroys the mirror connecting her to her mother's cell in the Mirror Prison, her mother calls out one last "I love you" before Raven ends the connection with her mother's staff. Whether this was genuine or simply another lie is unconfirmed.
- Forbidden: After Maya returns from her disappointing first date, Lochan, trying to hide some no-so-subtle jealousy, gives her the cold shoulder. A dramatic exchange follows, culminating in this:“He didn't kiss me!” I yell, grabbing his arms and trying to shake him back to life. “He tried to, okay, but I didn't let him! D'you know why? D'you want to know why? D'you really, really want to know why?” Still gripping him with both hands, I lean forward, gasping, as tears, hot and heavy, fall down my cheeks. “This is why...” Crying, I kiss Lochan’s cheek. “This is why...” With a muffled sob, I kiss the corner of Lochan’s lips. “This is why…” Closing my eyes, I kiss Lochan’s mouth.
- Full Metal Panic!:
- Gauron, five seconds before trying to get his Humongous Mecha to self-destruct and have a double suicide with Sousuke, yells out, "I LOVE YOU KASHIM!" Sousuke is not amused.
- Tessa also directly confesses her love for Sousuke later on. He misunderstands it brilliantly, in typical Sousuke fashion.
- Later on in the novels, Sousuke and Kaname finally get their chance to declare their love for each other as well — while on an open radio frequency. Everybody that counts in both Mithril and Amalgam hears them — including Leonard and Tessa. While (in the original Japanese) Kaname uses a slightly more temperate expression of love, Sousuke goes straight for the "aishiteru" formula — the very same that Gauron had thrown at him during the above-mentioned suicide attempt, and actually the most serious one in Japanese language. Sousuke gets mercilessly teased by Kurz and Mao afterwards — Kaname is still a prisoner of Leonard so she has it worse, as Leonard actually beats her up. Leonard is a very sore loser, unfortunately…
- Sousuke actually gave his own desperate declaration even earlier when Leonard attacks Jindai High School, trying to clarify to a despondent Kaname as best he can exactly what his "mission" is.Sousuke: I like you. I’m scared, and I don’t understand it, but I’m attracted to you. That’s how it’s been ever since I first met you. I’d never felt that way before. The one who changed my entire world was you... That’s why I will protect it all. Not just you. I will guard everything in the world that you belong to. If I don’t, my "mission" is finished.
- Gone series:
- In Lies, the third book of the series, when Diana finally admits that she loves Caine (while, at the same time, calling him a "sick twisted creep".), just as he's about to kill Sanjit and the other island kids. Before falling off a cliff, no less. You don't get more anguished than that, even in the GONE series…
- ...until the next book in the GONE series, PLAGUE, where Dekka Talent admits her feelings to heterosexual best friend Brianna... whilst getting flesh-eating bugs removed from her stomach in emergency life-saving surgery. Making Diana's confession pretty damn casual.
- From C. Dickens' Great Expectations by an older Pip, to Estella:"Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. [...] You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, pad of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!"
- Peeta is being interviewed in The Hunger Games. When asked he admits that there's a girl he's had a crush on forever. He reluctantly tells the host that being the one who walks away from the games won't help because the object of his affection is going into the arena with him. It's one of the most cunning and savvy moves any Tribute has ever made in the history of the Games.
- The Invention of Morel:
- The narrator, after pursuing an obviously disinterested Faustine for days, finally throws himself at her feet and proclaims his love for her. Too bad she doesn't know he exists.
- Then there's the ending. He makes it looks like they were in love and kills himself by doing so. It's complicated and a bit tragic.
- Jane Eyre: Jane delivers an epic one when she thinks she's to be separated from Rochester — but it's also calling him out on how he's been using her mercilessly, acting as if she has no feelings just because she is not a gentlewoman.
- Journey to Chaos: During Book 3 Mana Mutation Menace, Tiza is implied to have whispered a love confession in Nolien's ear just before he is about to be mana mutated.
- In The Last Wish, Eist Tuiseach tells Queen Calanthe he loves her after she's been thrown against the wall by her daughter's latent magical gift run amok. With some help from Geralt, everyone makes it and Calanthe and Eist Tuiseach marry later.
- In the final installment of The Licanius Trilogy, Davian plans to sacrifice himself to save Andarra. Before he leaves, he and Asha openly say how much they love each other and lament the situation. Luckily, he doesn't actually die.
- Little Women:
- Laurie's proposal to Jo. He doesn't fare any better than Mr. Darcy, especially because Jo does only like him as a friend and not even this will change her mind. Laurie later falls in love with and marries Jo's youngest sister Amy.
- Jo herself does have a better return rate when she sobs out her confession to her friend and somewhat mentor Fritz, who agrees wholeheartedly.
- The Lord of the Rings: Early in The Return of the King, when Aragorn stops to see Eowyn on his way to the Paths of the Dead, she argues that she should go with him, and Aragorn forbids it because she'd be neglecting her duties to rule Rohan in the King's absence. When she presses the issue, he says that "you have no errand to the South". She gets in a very subtle declaration of her (already obvious) love for Aragorn by pointing out that neither do his companions; they go because they love him, implying that she should be allowed to go for the same reason.
- In John Hemry's The Lost Fleet novel Invincible, Geary has to read a letter between two Star-Crossed Lovers. As he expects, it contains this: he declares that his feelings are incapable of changing and therefore they must not meet again. She on receiving it declares that she must not respond to it.
- In Checkmate, last book of the Lymond Chronicles:She said, "Then tell me that what you feel for me is an infatuation. That you object to being tied. That, like poor Jane Shore's lover, you find yourself more amorous of my body than curious of my soul? Then I should agree with you. That I should want to be spared."
A trickle of wax, occasioned by the draught of her movement, ran like an escaping spirit down the stem of a candle and there stiffened, extinguished as an unwanted emotion. Lymond drew an uneven breath. "What is temptation, if not that?"
"Then tell me," Philippa said. "And make me believe it."
It was a moment before he replied. Then the shut mouth curled, in something not quite a smile. "Gould bydeth ever bright... It would be a pity to cloud it," he said. "That is one blasphemy I cannot bring myself to commit. I love you, Philippa, in every way known to man." - In the last book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Crippled God, Urb professes his love for Sergeant Hellian right before the ultimate end battle, shouting over the battlefield clamour. Hellian's reaction is to kiss him right then and there.
- Masks of Aygrima: Keltan gives one toward Mara when she tries to leave after Catilla berates Mara for getting the Secret City destroyed.
- In The Mortal Instruments, Clary gets one from Simon and another from Jace, while Jocelyn gets one from Luke in City of Glass. Magnus's is more of an Irritated Declaration Of Love, when Alec demands to know why he hasn't called him back, resulting in this exchange:Magnus: You're an idiot.
Alec: Is that why you didn't call me? Because I'm an idiot?
Magnus: No. I didn't call you because I'm tired of you only wanting me around when you need something. I'm tired of watching you be in love with someone else — someone, incidentally, who will never love you back. Not the way I do.
Alec: You love me?
Magnus: You stupid Nephilim. Why else am I here? Why else would I have spent the past few weeks patching up all your moronic friends every time they got hurt? And getting you out of every ridiculous situation you found yourself in? Not to mention helping you win a battle against Valentine. And all completely free of charge!
Alec: I hadn't looked at it that way.
Magnus: Of course not. You never looked at it in any way. I'm seven hundred years old, Alexander. I know when something isn't going to work. You won't even admit I exist to your parents.- Magnus also gives one to Alec one book earlier though the love part is only implied.
- Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! has a particularly painful example, mainly due to the sharp contrast between the series' typical sense of humor. Nyarko isn't shy about professing her love for Mahiro in over-the-top fashion and even manages to do it in more subtle, sweet ways when he complains about her being too hyper. But then Mahiro has to fake date a friend, and spending a whole day following them is too much for Nyarko. She confronts him that night and has an emotional breakdown, sobbing over how much it hurt watching him even pretending to be another woman's fiancé, and how his refusal to just say whether he likes her or not is driving her crazy. In his own Tsundere way, Mahiro manages to say that he likes Nyarko, and they spend the rest of the night snuggling. Notably, in this scene Nyarko goes from using her usual "daisuki" (大好き), the normal way of saying "love" in Japanese, to the much more intense and meaningful "aishiteru" (愛してる).
- Erika Griffin's novel, The One Who Waited: Upon being repeatedly assailed by the Boogeyman character, Alice finds out that the only reason he has been terrorizing her was that she abandoned him when she was still a child and he needed her to remember him in order to maintain his existence. These emotions manifested themselves gradually into an obsessive, parasitic kind of love.
- In the Outlander series, Depraved Bisexual Captain John Randall, during his Villainous Breakdown, repeatedly confesses to Jamie that he loves him, all while sobbing uncontrollably and kissing him. Unfortunately for poor Jamie, he incurs Randall's psychotic wrath when he refuses Randall's order to tell him that he loves him too.
- In Pact, Jeremy Meath, High Drunk of Dionysus, confesses his love to his wife, Sandra Duchamp, immediately before betraying her by siding with her enemy Blake Thorburn in order to get revenge on Sandra's family.
- Book 8 of The Pendragon Adventure, Courtney has a gun pointed at Mark (It Makes Sense in Context), and she makes one of these. He starts to cry, and admits he loves her back, but that he will not stop and she should shoot him. She doesn't, changing the future in which Mark died.
- Captain Wentworth's declaration of love to Anne Elliot in Persuasion. He writes her a hurting letter with his second marriage proposal. "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago." Don't worry, Captain Wentworth. You've nothing to fear.
- Pride and Prejudice: Mr. Darcy delivers a speech like this to Elizabeth Bennet halfway through. This one might be trope-defining. Darcy's anguish over his distaste for Elizabeth's family injures her pride (and is also rather tactless and a hefty example of his own, to be completely fair to her), and she'd never liked him anyway, so she rejects him. Consequently, the reaffirmation of his feelings at the end is a bit more humble.
- The Princess Bride starts out like this. Beautifully done due to William Goldman's trademark writing style: he makes two pages of buildup seem like half a book's worth.
- Rebuild World: In the web novel version, the young pickpocket Alna tearfully declares her love for Katsuya while admitting to him that she lied to and manipulated him to protect herself, saying he should Go On Without Me to let her meet her Laser-Guided Karma. Katsuya refuses but Akira fatally wounds her while they're talking, and after Alna dies in Katsuya's arms, he goes in an Unstoppable Rage at the nearby gang mercenaries hunting them both, just as planned by Alpha to have him serve as a distraction for Akira to get away.
- The Riddle Master Trilogy: Platonically, Deth to Morgon. (And vice-versa.)Morgon: All I wanted, even when I hated you most, was some poor, barren, parched excuse to love you.
- In the third book of The Ruby Red Trilogy, Emerald Green, Gideon makes one to Gwyneth when she's dying. Well, kind of dying.
- Shatter the Sky: Right before Kaia is taken away after she at last found her once again, Maren declares her love for her.
- In Sword Art Online, Suguha lets her feelings for Kirito develop in order to help her give up on Kazuto. That's why, later on, she has a rather anguished moment where she finally confesses her love to Kazuto right after she learns that he and Kirito are the same person.
- Sydney Carton gets one of these in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, while Charles Darnay gets a much more subdued one later on.
- In Toradora!, Ryuji gets hurt in the pool and nearly drowns. When Ami tries to take him to the nurse's office Taiga cries and screams "Ryuji is mine!" in tears. Although she later recants that it was a love confession, everyone around them takes it as one. Things would have been easier for everyone and especially for her if she'd simply let it stand as a confession.
- Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: When Olivia falls from an airship mid-battle, and Leon uses his Hover Bike to catch her mid-air, Olivia confesses to him while holding on as they ascend. Leon reacts like I Can't Believe A Girl Like You Would Notice Me, and suggests multiple possible suitors he thinks she might be destined to be with instead, to which she rejects each with biting critiques of their personalities, making Leon laugh.
- The Twilight Saga: Edward makes one of these in the meadow scene. He confesses his love for Bella at the same time as he tells her how hard it is for him not to kill her.
- Villains by Necessity: Just as it seems like he's about to die, Sam shouts to Kaylana that he loves her. They're implied to get together later.
- In Wander, Wander gives a platonic one to Dagger after he leaves her behind to find Romeo.
- Warrior Cats: Crowfeather to Leafpool, after saving her from falling off a cliff.Crowfeather: Is that what you think? Don't you know how I feel about you? And how much I hate myself for feeling that way about another cat so soon after Feathertail's death? I loved her, I really did! How can I love you too?
- At the end of both the novel and anime versions of Welcome to the NHK!, Sato tries to convince Misaki not to kill herself with a speech that becomes increasingly impassioned, until he blurts out "I like you! I love you! Please, don't die!" Misaki dismisses it as being hollow words to convince her not to jump, and Sato himself doesn't realize the full weight and meaning of what he said until he's ready to jump off the cliff himself in a desperate attempt to convince her of the worth of her own life.
- The Wolf Den Trilogy: Due to their forbidden interclass romance, Amara and Philos were forced to keep their feelings a secret for the longest time. Even in private, they sought to protect each other's feelings by never acknowledging the depth of their attraction. Finally, with the ash of Vesuvius falling around them and their survival uncertain, Amara is about to give up and let herself die. Philos affirms his love for Amara and she reciprocates, providing the Life-Saving Encouragement she needs to make it to Surrentum.
- Played for Drama in "Lifeloop", a short story in Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga, when a movie star does it to a fellow actress. While the camera is rolling. After she wraps the shoot with some brilliant improv and gets her Human Popsicle vacation, she wakes up years later and finds out that he was dead serious.
- Catherine Earnshaw gets one of the best in literature in Wuthering Heights. Unfortunately, she doesn't make it to Heathcliff. And even more unfortunately, an eavesdropping Heathcliff overhears only the part where it would degrade her to marry him and not the part about her passionate love for him; cue a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and decades of misery for everyone in the book.It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.
- There are several occasions of this in the X-Wing Series. Kell Tainer makes one to Tyria Sarkin early in Wraith Squadron. She rebuffs him because she thinks he's Loving a Shadow. Later in the book, after getting to know her rather than judging by appearances and how good they would look together, he tries again, saying that he wants to win her heart — and she tackles him. She'd been attracted since the beginning but had wanted him to see her for herself before making a move.
